1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weather strip that is mounted on an peripheral part of an opening in the roof of an automobile.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there have been cases where a sunroof system is provided in a roof of an automobile. In general, the sunroof system includes a roof panel which opens and closes an opening provided in the roof. In recent years, there are sunroof systems in which a plurality of roof panels are provided correspondingly to openings provided in a roof of an automobile, and in this case, a weather strip is provided to establish a seal between the adjacent roof panels (for example, refer to JP-UM-A-7-35142).
The weather strip described in JP-UM-A-7-35142 is such as to be mounted on an edge of each roof panel. Apart from this technique, it is also considered that a weather strip is mounted on a frame base member which divides an opening in the roof into a plurality of openings. To describe this technique based on a specific example, as shown in FIG. 6, a first opening 62 and a second opening 63 are formed in a roof 61 of an automobile, and a movable roof panel 71 is provided correspondingly to the first opening 62 in such a manner as, for example, to slide, while a roof panel 72 is provided correspondingly to the second opening 63 so as to be stationary relative to the opening 63. In addition, a roof weather strip 68 is provided on a frame base member 64 which separates the first opening 62 from the second opening 63 which is provided with a first base portion 65a and a second base portion 65b which are mounted on the frame base member 64, a first seal portion 66a and a second seal portion 66b which are hollow and which project upward from the base portions 65a, 65b, respectively, and a connecting portion 67 which connects together the first base portion 65a and the second base portion 65b. In addition, when the roof panel 72 is mounted, the roof panel 72 and the second seal portion 66b are brought into contact with each other, so as to establish a seal between the roof panel 72 and the frame base member 64. In addition, when the movable roof panel 71 is closed, the movable roof panel 71 and the first and second seal portions 66a, 66b are brought into contact with each other, so as to establish a seal between the movable roof panel 71 and the frame base member 64.
When employing the configuration that has been described above, however, when the vehicle is subjected to a high pressure washing, highly pressurized water collides against the second seal portion 66b as indicated by thick arrows in FIG. 6, whereby the second seal portion 66b is deformed as indicated by chain double-dashed lines in the same figure, causing a risk that the highly pressurized water penetrates between the second seal portion 66b and the first seal portion 66a. Here, the first seal portion 66a is collapsed to be deformed through contact with a lower surface of the movable roof panel 71, and a “space” having an acute cross section is formed in a boundary portion between the first seal portion 66a and the movable roof panel 71. As this occurs, the first seal portion 66a and the movable roof panel 71 are forced to be separated from each other from where the aforesaid “space” is formed by the highly pressurized water that has so penetrated, leading to a concern that the water might enter the passenger compartment of the vehicle.